Most Americans--especially the ones who live a long ways from the forests-- assume that the National Forest Service is sort of like the National Park Service. National Forests, with those big trees and nice campgrounds, are kind of low rent National Parks: the landscapes that aren't spectacular, but still real pretty.

A more accurate comparison for the NFS would be NASA. Over the past 20 years, the Forest Service's appetite for moonscapes picked up where the space program left off. A branch of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, the NFS has become so dedicated to the decimation of public land through clearcuts, overgrazing, and mining that it can't even be bothered with the basics of agriculture: replanting, crop rotation, or preventing soil erosion. Instead, we get--literally--lunacy.

The latest, and perhaps grandest, NFS atrocity yet perpetrated locally in the name of destroying public land for private profit is unfolding swiftly in north central Washington state. Battle Mountain Gold Company of Houston is proposing a 700 acre (over one square mile) open pit gold mine on Buckhorn Mountain in the Okanogan. The proposed Crown Jewel Mine, located on U.S. Forest Service land, would include a 117-acre open pit 900 feet deep; two waste rock stockpiles covering 244 acres; and a 90-acre tailings "pond." The mine would use 22 million gallons of water per day. BMG plans to fill the upper Marias Creek Valley with cyanide-laced tailings, eventually forming a sludge pit 100-250 feet deep. The enormous mine would remove the top one-third of Buckhorn Mountain, producing 3,000 tons of ore per day.

The Okanogan National Forest has released a final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) in favor of this first large scale open-pit cyanide leach gold mine in Washington State. The Forest Service--apparently not satisfied with letting mountains wash away one rainstorm at a time after they've been clearcut--has even created a special management area just for the mine that allows unrestricted logging, roads, waste rock, tailings, etc. in riparian areas. This creation of a special management area for a corporate interest is unprecedented and illegal.

Conservation groups appealed the FEIS on March 19, claiming that the Forest Service review of the project ignored citizen concerns and impacts to the community's air and water. Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Wash. State Dept. of Ecology have written statements opposing the mine.

In their Detailed Comments on Impacts from the Battle Mountain Gold Company's Proposed Crown Jewel Mine, the EPA writes:

"It is our view that eliminating the top of the mountain will have irreversible and significant effects not only to headwater ecosystems, but also to downstream reaches of Marias, Nicholson, Gold, Ethel and Bolster Creeks...We view any of the proposed mining alternatives as posing significant adverse impacts to headwater ecosystems and their ecological functions...These impacts have not been adequately characterized in the Forest Service FEIS, nor is compensatory mitigation proposed to restore lost functions that would be incurred from such changes...The headwater ecosystems of Buckhorn Mountain are important in providing key functions for wildlife, water quality, sediment transport and downstream flow maintenance and transport of stream structure, as well as other ecological functions and habitat corridors. It will be very difficult to replace these functions and thus demonstrate compliance... "

Issues in the appeal of the Crown Jewel FEIS include:

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to respond to public comments to draft environmental impact statements. The FEIS contains no specific responses to comments submitted to the Forest Service.
Mine tailings disposal cannot be dumped on a creek as the FEIS intends.
Discharges from the pit pond, waste rock, and tailings pond would require long term treatment to prevent pollution of local water resources, yet no long term waste water treatment plan is included in the FEIS.
The FEIS proposes to prevent acid mine drainage by isolating and encapsulating acid generating rock. The FEIS does not describe how isolation and encapsulation will be accomplished.
The FEIS fails to quantify water rights belonging to the Colville Confederated Tribes in the Buckhorn Mountain area.
No specific calculations are provided to ensure adequate long term clean-up and site monitoring.
The FEIS does not show that the mine's waste water would meet state water quality standards.
The company's mitigation plan does not adequately offset predicted wetland elimination and degradation.
Ecology has repeatedly stated that the mine would permanently impair local hydrology, instream flows, and senior water rights. The FEIS fails to document this environmental impact.
Ecology determined that the mine's air quality would exceed acceptable arsenic levels. Although this would lead to denial of an air quality permit, the FEIS ignores the problem.

This mine is just the first of many such mines planned for Washington State. All mines on public lands are a horrific giveaway of public resources (under the antiquated Mining Act of 1872, the public gets literally pennies of the worth of the extracted riches). New technologies in the last decade, enabling transnational corporations to take apart whole mountains to find tiny amounts of the desired deposit, have upped the stakes. These are the politics behind Bill Clinton's election giveaways of public land in the infamous Yellowstone and Escalante Canyonlands deals last year. Mining companies are waiting in line to see if Battle Mountain is permitted. The Forest Service has amply demonstrated its eagerness to deplete its inventory of trees; apparently it doesn't want waterways, wildlife, air quality, or mountains, either.

To voice your opinion write: Regional Forester, Attn: Appeals, U.S. Forest Service, Region 6, PO Box 3623, Portland, OR 97208-3623. For more information contact: David Kliegman, Okanogan Highlands Alliance, PO Box 163, Tonasket WA 98855; phone/fax (509) 485-3361.